1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a nose construction, particularly for high temperature furnaces, which provides a bend or turn in a layer of refractory bricks. High temperature furnaces may include a curved wall portion known as a fantail turn or nose construction which makes the transition between a vertical or angled wall and a suspended horizontal roof, or between two walls having some other angular relationship to each other. The nose constructions to which this invention relate have their center of radius outside the cold side of the furnace.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Existing fantail turn or nose construction designs suspend refractories from the cold side of a furnace with at least each pair of refractories requiring a suspension hanger creating a maze of suspension hangers. Existing nose constructions generally comprise a plurality of wedge-shaped refractories having generally planar opposing sides which converge toward the cold side of the nose construction, as taught by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,636,603, 1,764,707, 2,132,517, 2,272,015 and 2,685,264. U.S. Pat. No. 1,582,275 teaches a curved construction having hanger refractories with planar surfaces which converge toward the cold side and filler refractories with planar surface which converge toward the hot side.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,463,689 teaches a high temperature furnace nose construction providing refractory replacement from the cold side of a furnace. A plurality of wedge-shaped refractories and a plurality of rectangular-shaped refractories are arranged to form straight rows along the length of the nose construction. Both the rectangular-shaped and wedge-shaped refractories have planar sides and require a hanger to suspend two adjacent refractories.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,519 teaches high temperature furnace construction for flat roofs and walls using refractories having interlocking corrugations. Merkle Engineers, Inc. has used and sold for several years the rectangular filler and hanger refractories as described in the '519 patent. Merkle Engineers, Inc., P.O. Box 312, Galena, Ill. 61036, has published catalog brochures entitled "MODU-LOK" and "Suspended and Tied Back Refractory Systems for Incineration and Resource Recovery Projects" describing these rectangular filler and hanger refractories.